"America First" in Perspective

The Left--and its NeoConservative fellow-travelers--use the term "America First" as an epithet.  They despise folks who think that way, and especially those who talk that way.

Well, maybe there's a good reason for using the term.

...The US spends 3.6 per cent of its economic output on defence; Germany spends a pitiful 1.2 per cent. And what little Germany does have tends not to work. When Angela Merkel made the grand gesture of sending weapons to Kurdish rebels fighting Isil, her cargo planes couldn’t get off the ground.

At the time, the German military confessed that just half of its Transall transport aircraft were fit to fly. Of its 190 helicopters, just 41 were ready to be deployed. Of its 406 Marder tanks, 280 were out of use.

Even Barack Obama has been tiring of European uselessness. He recently admitted that he had to threaten to end the “special relationship” with Britain before David Cameron agreed to spend the Nato minimum on defence. Even then, Mr Cameron used smoke and mirrors, counting military pensions and intelligence in the total figure. So at a time when the US stumps up 72 per cent of total Nato spending, the puzzle is not why Americans should be growing fed up with it all. The puzzle is why their patience (and generosity) has endured for so long....

Sauce, goose, gander, ya'know.